David Einhorn (10 November 18092 November 1879) was a German rabbi and leader of Reform Judaism in the United States. In 1855, he became the first rabbi of the Har Sinai Congregation in Baltimore, the oldest Jewish-American congregation affiliated with the Reform movement since its inception. While there, he created an early American prayer book for the congregation that became one of the progenitors of the 1894 Union Prayer Book.

Writing and preaching in German, rabbi Einhorn denounced slavery as a moral evil, rebutting the pro-slavery theology of rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall. In April 1861, after preaching a sermon against slavery, Einhorn was driven out of Baltimore by a pro-slavery mob. He fled to Philadelphia and became rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel. In 1866, he moved to New York City, where he became rabbi of Congregation Adath Israel.

Early years

He was born in Diespeck, Kingdom of Bavaria, on November 10, 1809. He studied at the yeshiva in Fürth where he excelled, earning his rabbinical diploma at age 17. Einhorn then studied at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the University of Würzburg from 1828 to 1834, supported by his mother following the death of his father. He argued for those views at the rabbinical conference in Frankfurt in 1845. "The collapse of Israel's political independence was once regarded as a misfortune", observed Einhorn. "But it really represented progress: not atrophy, but an elevation of religion. Henceforth, Israel came closer to its destiny. Holy devotion replaced sacrifices. Israel was to bear the word of God to all the corners of the earth."

Einhorn was chosen Landesrabbiner of the Birkenfeld at Hoppstädten, and afterward Landesrabbiner of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1847, succeeding Rabbi Samuel Holdheim, whose views were a major influence on Einhorn. Olat Tamid contrasted with Isaac Mayer Wise's Minhag America in particular by removing references to the status of Jews as a chosen people and eliminating references to the restoration of sacrificial services in the Temple. Einhorn remained an opponent of interfaith marriage, arguing in Sinai that such practices were "a nail in the coffin of the small Jewish race", though he opposed the retention of practices such as the wearing of phylacteries, the limitations on activity prohibited on the Sabbath, and kosher dietary laws, all of which he viewed as outmoded. Only those portions of the Torah that derived from a moral foundation were to be retained.

Denunciation of slavery

In 1861, Einhorn rebutted a sermon by rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall that supported the existence of slavery. “Is slavery a moral evil or not?” wrote Einhorn in Sinai. “… It took Dr. Raphall, a Jewish preacher, to concoct the deplorable farce in the name of divine authority, to proclaim the justification, the moral blamelessness of servitude, and to lay down the law to Christian preachers of opposite convictions. The Jew, a descendant of the race that offers daily praises to God for deliverance out of the house of bondage in Egypt, and even today suffers under the yoke of slavery in most places of the old world…undertook to designate slavery as a perfectly sinless institution, sanctioned by God!"”

Rabbi Einhorn passionately denounced slavery in the face of many of his congregants and colleagues who supported slavery in what was then a slave state, Maryland. In his sermon titled "War on Amalek", based on Exodus 17, Einhorn declared: "We are told that this crime [slavery] rests upon a historical right!... Slavery is an institution sanctioned by the Bible, hence war against it is war against, and not for, God! It has ever been a strategy of the advocate of a bad cause to take refuge from the spirit of the Bible to its letter." A riot broke out in response to his sermon on 19 April 1861, in which the mob sought to tar and feather the rabbi. Einhorn fled to Philadelphia where he became spiritual leader of Congregation Keneseth Israel.

Retirement

In 1866, he moved to New York City, where he became the inaugural rabbi of Congregation Adas Jeshurun on 39th Street, which merged with Congregation Ansche Chesed in 1873, adopted the new name Congregation Beth-El, and built a new structure on 63rd Street. Einhorn retained the position as spiritual leader of the merged synagogue, delivering his final sermon on 12 July 1879, after which the congregation agreed to bestow upon him a pension of $3,500 (~$ in ).) he was presented with a resolution adopted at the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, that recognized Einhorn for his rabbinic service, noting the "ability and character which have marked his career, and the earnestness, honesty and zeal which have animated the heart of a man whom we proudly recognize as one of Israel's purest champions and noblest teachers." His funeral was held before a packed house at Beth-El on 6 November 1879, where his plain coffin was carried into the synagogue by 12 pallbearers and placed before the pulpit. Attending were such rabbinic notables as Richard James Horatio Gottheil of Congregation Emanu-El, Einhorn's son-in-law and successor Kaufmann Kohler of Beth-El, another son-in-law, Emil G. Hirsch, of Louisville, Kentucky, along with representatives of the congregations he served in Baltimore and Philadelphia. He was buried at Machpelah Cemetery, near the Jackie Robinson Parkway.

Reference Notes

Sources

  • Jewish Encyclopedia: "Einhorn, David" by Cyrus Adler & Kaufmann Kohler (1906).
  • "David Einhorn (1809-1879)" Jewish Virtual Library.
  • "Reform Rabbinical Conference Ends in Frankfurt: July 28, 1845" Center for Israel Education.
  • Abolitionist Rabbi David Einhorn Carte-de-Visite, circa 1855-1861 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
  • "David R. Einhorn" Encyclopedia.com
  • "David Einhorn, Judaism, Biographies" Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2003.
  • "David Einhorn's Response to 'A Biblical View of Slavery'" from Sinai, vol. VI, pp. 2–22, Baltimore, 1861, translated from the German by Johanna Einhorn Kohler. Jewish-American History Foundation.
  • David Einhorn: Das vom Judenthum gebotene Verhalten des Israeliten gegenüber seiner stiefväterlichen Behandlung von Seiten des Vaterlandes. Predigt, am 13. November 1847 in der Synagoge zu Schwerin gehalten Schwerin: Kürschner 1847 [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927050012/http://www.steinheim-institut.de/quellen_online/integrative_gesellschaft/pdf/1847_Einhorn.pdf] Original (German).